At the Office 2.0 Conference today, Web Office vendor Zoho will unveil a new Suite product called Zoho Business. It will be available in two versions – Free and Pro. Both versions will be free until Zoho has sorted out the feature set for Pro over the beta period, expected to last until Q1 2008. At that point the Pro version will have a charge – mooted to be $40/user/year.
Zoho Business is a set of online office applications, similar to Google Apps. It will probably undercut Google Apps in price – at $40/user/year, it would be $10 per user cheaper than Google Apps. Zoho Business will be available in private beta for now, then move into public beta next month. It will go 1.0 during Q1 2008.
As yet the features for the Pro version haven’t been confirmed. But Zoho told Read/WriteWeb that it’ll include additional storage, security, telephone support, additional apps, customization and more control, more flexibility and control in groups, and more. These features will evolve as the Web Office market evolves over the next few months, we were told.
As part of the announcement, Zoho’s applications will be split into two categories: Zoho Personal and Zoho Business. Zoho Personal is what is currently offered for free to consumers. The Business suite is obviously aimed at businesses and this is where Zoho will finally make money, after a long time giving their products away for free (in the spirit of web 2.0).
Some of the main features of Zoho Business:
- Company level Admin Console
- Domain Management (for pointing your domains to Zoho Apps)
- Centralized User and Group Management
- Single Sign-on across several Zoho Apps
- Zoho Apps include Writer, Sheet, Show, Wiki, Notebook, Email, Cal, Tasks, Planner, Viewer, Chat etc.
- Customization Options
- Multiple levels of Security including SSL
- Remote Backup
- Telephone Support
The following video has more details and also see the screenshots below.
Zoho Business Control Panel
Zoho Business, Spreadsheet view
Disclosure: Zoho is a R/WW sponsor
